SLEEPING WITH THE LIGHT ON

Davico lives with his family above La Casita, their family restaurant, which provides plenty of distraction and adventure for Davico and his older brother, Felipe. Then one day, Davico hears shooting in the streets. There are blackouts every evening, and the family must sleep under the big wooden table in the dining room. People stop coming to the restaurant, and tanks and soldiers swarm the front of the National Palace, where a shoeshine boy warns the brothers that the gringos are coming.

But what does that mean, and who are the gringos? Davico wants to be brave, but the shooting and tanks and airplanes flying overhead terrify him. He finds comfort in the special lamp that his father buys him to comfort him during the blackouts. But it is not enough to console him when his parents announce that it's time to leave for the US, where no one speaks Spanish, and everything is different.

There's an author's note that outlines David Unger's personal connection to the story and provides a brief historical overview. He is an award-winning translator and author born in Guatemala. In 2014 he was awarded Guatemala's highest literary prize, the Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature. He is als the US representative for the Guadalajara Book Fair, and teaches at City College in New York City.

The book also features ten black and white illustrations by Carlos Vélez Aguilera, who has illustrated more than twenty children's books, and is the author-illustrator of the graphic novel Salón Destino.